time you could pull it up with your hand so you could imagine what the soccer team did to it, but now it is holding up to every- thing!" said Wood. I asked David what the first thing he did after he was able to get back on the soccer
field after the track resurfacing project and with a laugh he quickly replied, "I watered it heavily!" He also went back with some zeolite and organic fertilizers to help recov- ery. He plans on continuing a regular gyp- sum program to fight the sodium that is coming in from the 10,000 gallons of water that he enjoys irrigating nightly. He has no- ticed a slight magnesium deficiency in re- cent soil tests and plans on making a couple of sul-po-mag applications this fall but will also continue the use of potassium sulfate to fight potassium deficiencies and stay ahead of the sodium to potassium balance. I wouldn't wish 2 weeks of no irrigation on any turf manager let alone to have it happen in the middle of July and I have to say my expectations upon visiting David's field were pretty low, but I was overly im- pressed with the recovery that has occurred in such a short period of time. He still has some work to do and the weather has not helped much but the field is definitely playable, the few weak areas and field edges will be managed and over seeded. By open-
ing day September 1 the players and specta- tors will not know there was ever a point of concern and David and his team will look back at this experience with a chuckle and a sigh of relief. ■
Joel Simmons is the president of Earth-
Works Natural Organic Products and Soil First consulting and teaches the Soil First Academy. He holds a master's degree from Penn State University and is a former Penn State extension agent and instructor of soils at Rutgers University, joel@soilfirst.com. The Soil Profile is a quarterly interview se- ries that will be accompanied by soil test au- dits of a selected field from all corners of the sports turf world. Our goal is to evaluate the soil and water tests from a selected sports field and build a fertility program based on the soil profile. We would like to encourage all sports field managers who would like to be inter- viewed for this piece to contact the magazine. Along with Logan Labs he will provide free soil test work and consulting to the selected site.
www.stma.org
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